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My friend and I are just starting Bolt Action, and I want to play Norway (I know, dumb idea). My friend wants to play British Airborne, the warlord games range, which are obviously in 28mm heroic scale. However, the only plastic Norwegian range I can find at a reasonable price are in 20mm from early war miniatures, which has a decent range of infantry.
I was wondering if there would be any major issues posed by playing 20mm against 28mm in a very casual environment? We are both on a fairly tight budget, but any suggestions are appreciated.
Hobbit

It's going to look really weird as soon as the forces get close to each other. 20mm is extremely small vs 28mm.

If you're stuck on Norwegians you are going to have to get metal figures. It's no bad thing to invest a bit more for a force you like and Bolt Action is not a game requiring a huge number of figures

If there isn't a Bolt Action community around you, you might want to consider Germans as a more appropriate OpFor vs. your friend's British. Not as unique, but certainly more affordable.

Yeah, it's going to look very weird. You're pretty much having 6' infantry fight 4' infantry.

Someone's going to have to compromise here, I think. Either you're going to have to play Germans in 28mm, or your friend's going to have to play Germans in 20mm.

If you can talk it out, here's an idea; stick with 20mm if there's not a local group of Bolt Action players around. It's going to be cheaper overall (less money for terrain and figures), and the ranges look better with smaller figures.

If your friend is amendable, he can collect EWM British infantry, you can collect Norwegians, and you can pool your money together to make a German platoon that can act as the enemy when you want to play your platoon.

Hobbit wrote:
My friend and I are just starting Bolt Action, and I want to play Norway (I know, dumb idea). My friend wants to play British Airborne, the warlord games range, which are obviously in 28mm heroic scale. However, the only plastic Norwegian range I can find at a reasonable price are in 20mm from early war miniatures, which has a decent range of infantry.
I was wondering if there would be any major issues posed by playing 20mm against 28mm in a very casual environment? We are both on a fairly tight budget, but any suggestions are appreciated.
Hobbit

what really matters is if both of you are ok with it. If so, enjoy. But I'd not want to see it on the table. As others said, would be quite a bit off.

Here's a couple of pictures that may help illuminate this discussion.
Remember that 1/72 is essentially 20mm.

I will say that even if you have to build slowly, acquiring and painting figures in factions that your passionate about is worth the effort and time. If you really want to do Norwegians, do it right in 28mm. You can always proxy them as Germans (or just play alternate history) against your friend, and when you play against others, you'll have a set of miniatures you can be proud of and likely that others will be interested in and impressed by. You can play a fun BA game at low point values so it's no problem to play small at first if it takes time to afford all the figures you want.

if you take pictures of it, take them from the 28mm side of the table, until they get to fisticuffs range it likely doesn't really matter all that much for infantry. for vehicles it would be worth cutting out a bit of card a suitable size for a 28mm vehicle to sit any 20mm vehicles on.

may be worth similar for the 20mm infantry (blue-tac them to a 25mm base or something)

and then just go enjoy yourselves

"these are small, those are far away"

You should go to 20mm for Bolt Action for a couple reasons.

1. There is a lot of WWII stuff at 20mm, so you can get more of the niche stuff.

2. 20mm can be less expensive!

3. It makes Bolt Action ranges more reasonable

 Easy E wrote:
You should go to 20mm for Bolt Action for a couple reasons.

1. There is a lot of WWII stuff at 20mm, so you can get more of the niche stuff.

2. 20mm can be less expensive!

3. It makes Bolt Action ranges more reasonable

As much as I like 28mm (and would recommend it first), if it's doubtful you'll ever play against anyone besides your friend and budget is tight, then 20mm is a viable option for both of you. 1/72 is a remarkably cheap scale for vehicles and figures at less than half the price of 28mm, probably even less than that if your friend is willing to paint soft plastic figures.

If you have access to 3d printer, there are even affordable ww2 Norwegian infantry STL's
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/norwegian-infantry-ww2-set-a-1-72-scale

WWII gaming in 20MM was the norm before Bolt Action came around.

 Easy E wrote:
WWII gaming in 20MM was the norm before Bolt Action came around.

Certainly more common than now.
It was boxes of 1/72 WW2 figures to play with my matchbox military vehicles that drew me into the wargaming and military model shop years before I really got into wargaming.

To be fair though, 25mm WW2 was pretty common too. In the late 2000's I gamed with a crew that had been together for decades. They played Tractics in 25mm and I was surprised at how much smaller their old true 25mm historical vehicles were compared to my heroic 28mm sci-fi vehicles.

And then there was the confusion whereby a certain segment of the market called 1/72 things "25mm" because they were taking the height of a soldier to the top of his helmet rather than sole-to-eyeline measurements. I think some 1/72 Matchbox plastic kits also had "25mm" on them.

At least we've got all that figured out and there's no confusion or arguments about miniature scale now...

 Easy E wrote:
WWII gaming in 20MM was the norm before Bolt Action came around.

I just played a game of Chain of Command this past weekend with 20mm miniatures (that are probably as old as I am), and I can honestly say, if I wanted to abandon 28mm WW2, I would do it for 20mm.

The scale just felt better. CoC has less table crowding than Bolt Action does anyway, but even still, I liked how cutting the miniatures down by a third let there be more space on the table.

Thanks for all the help guys! Having talked it over with my friend, I think I’m going to change tack completely and go for some 28mm Soviets. We aren’t really bothered about historical accuracy, at least not in terms of what forces we play against. I like the “infantry horde” style, but also I want tanks which the norwegians don’t have. We are probably not going to start BA until the summer anyway, because of other commitments, so budget might not be as much of an issue anymore. Thanks again,
Hobbit

While not Bolt Action, my son and I just started playing Battlegroup: Kursk in 28mm using Warlord, Artizan, Empress, Brigade, and Rubicon tanks/miniatures. We're playing around 900 point "squad" games, and the 4x6 board we're using is rather crowded. We are moving up to 4x8 for those size games, just to have more room to maneuver.

We'll keep the squad level games in 28mm, but anything bigger, or to play the Kursk scenarios, we'll likely pull out the 15mm germans and russians (on a 4x8 board)

Hobbit wrote:
Thanks for all the help guys! Having talked it over with my friend, I think I’m going to change tack completely and go for some 28mm Soviets. We aren’t really bothered about historical accuracy, at least not in terms of what forces we play against. I like the “infantry horde” style, but also I want tanks which the norwegians don’t have. We are probably not going to start BA until the summer anyway, because of other commitments, so budget might not be as much of an issue anymore. Thanks again,
Hobbit

Sounds like a great choice for you. Nothing wrong with hordes and tanks and there are good affordable options for Russians.

One other benefit of going 28mm, is that you can add a couple "Weird" elements to your force and play Konflikt 47 also.

Hope it all works out for you and your friends.